


Promise

by agirlintheville



Series: 100 Dates [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-28
Updated: 2014-11-28
Packaged: 2018-02-27 08:27:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2686004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agirlintheville/pseuds/agirlintheville
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint makes Bruce a promise for a better life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Promise

"Hey Clint? I’m home!" Bruce called out wearily as he stepped into the dark little apartment that he shared with his boyfriend.

It had been a long day in the lab, resulting in exactly zero progress on the experiments that he was helping his professor with. After another failure and pounding the table in frustration, Dr. Levi had sent him home.

_"Go kiss your man. And don’t come back until you’ve had sex and sleep…in that order."_

Bruce chuckled at the memory, and dropped his book bag to the floor. He was about to take off his coat when he realized that Clint hadn’t answered him.

"Clint?"

He heard something thump and a muffled curse. Then Clint poked his head out of their bedroom door.

"Babe! You’re home early!"

"Yeah. Levi sent me home. Said I needed some sleep,"  Bruce took a few steps to the door, pausing when he saw Clint inch back. "What’s going on?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing," Clint smiled brightly at him while trying to block the door with his body.

"Why are you blocking the door, what’s in there?"

"Nothing! I…hell, just stay there okay? I didn’t…gimme 2 minutes."

"What?" Bruce frowned, but Clint had already disappeared back into the room.

Bruce stepped up to the door and rattled the locked door knob. Pressing his ear to the wood, he heard more thumps, more swears, then a soft pop. Finally, there was silence.

"Clint?"

"Yeah, yeah, I’m…can you close your eyes?"

"Clint. Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously. Just, please, close your eyes okay?"

Bruce huffed, but shut his eyes, "Clint, I’m really tired."

"I know, babe, just keep ‘em closed please."

Bruce heard the door hinges creak open, then felt Clint’s warm fingers close over his wrists, tugging him forward. Bruce followed until he heard, "Okay, stop there. Keep your eyes closed."

He waited and listened to his boyfriend move about the room. Finally, he heard the door close behind him, and felt Clint’s hands on his shoulders, "Okay, open your eyes."

Blinking his eyes open, Bruce  immediately saw that Clint had pushed their tiny mattress and messy bedding to the wall, and had shoved their old worn dresser and nightstand to the other end of the room. In the middle of the cleared space was a small card table lit with tea lights. Two plates were carefully arranged on the table with roasted chicken and vegetables. To finish off the presentation, there were two glasses filled with pale amber champagne. The opened bottle stood proudly in the middle of the set table.

Bruce stared at the table, and then peered back at Clint, "We have champagne glasses?"

"Um, well. Nat has champagne glasses. So by the law of I borrow things from our friends and not give them back, we have champagne glasses."

"Oh," Bruce looked at the table again and back at Clint. Then he turned around fully, and looked Clint up and down. "You own a suit?"

"Uh," Clint glanced down at the black suit and white pressed shirt that he was wearing. "Well, Tony has a suit and he’s about my size. So…" Clint looked at him and his face fell. "You don’t like it."

"What? No, no I do. I like it. This…" Bruce looked again at the presentation and then at Clint. "This is incredible. And you look amazing. It’s just…I wasn’t expecting it."

"That’s the best part of a surprise! Come on, sit down," Clint grabbed his hand and led him to one of the small stools that sat next to the table.

A little bewildered, Bruce sat down. "Clint, I don’t understand. Our grocery budget is like $50 a week. How did you afford all of this?" He looked up to see Clint fussing with a playlist on his old laptop. The low crooning of Dean Martin swept through the room.

"It wasn’t that expensive. And I did some extra jobs for some of my clients from the shop,"  Clint turned back towards him, grinning. "You okay?"

"Uh, yeah..." Bruce pushed his hand through his hair. "Just confused. Is it our anniversary or something?" At Clint’s snort and head shake, his frown deepened. "Then I don’t understand why you went through the trouble."

"It wasn’t trouble, it…" Clint spread his hands, and exhaled softly.  He sat down on the other stool, next to Bruce, close enough that his knee brushed the outside of Bruce’s thigh. Bruce watched as Clint slowly twisted his hands in his lap.

Clint then took a deep breath, and glanced up at him, " I wanna make a toast. Let’s make a toast."

"Okay," Bruce was silent a moment, then shrugging picked up the glasses and handed one to Clint. "What are toasting to?"

"We are toasting to a promise."

"A promise."

"Yes. A promise," Clint cleared his throat. He put his glass down and grasped Bruce’s free hand. "Bruce, I know things have been…hard. I know this wasn’t at all what you were expecting when you hooked up with me. No, lemme finish." Bruce closed his mouth, and swallowed his denials.

"I know that you weren’t expecting my debt, and the late hours at the lab, and barely seeing each other, and everything else. But I am making you a promise Bruce Banner. The shop is picking up business, and soon we’re going to be in a good place. I’m going to work hard to give you everything that you want. If you want dinners, and suits, and champagne, I’ll get that for you. If you want rice for every meal, and crappy mattresses, and songs by candle light, I’ll give you that too. I just…you deserve everything, and I want to give you everything. And I promise you that soon, I’ll be able to give you everything. Because I love you."

"Clint, I…" Bruce trailed off, staring into Clint's eyes, shining in the flickering light.

"That’s okay, you don’t have to say anything. I just wanted you to know how I felt about us."

Bruce smiled, and cleared his throat, "Thank you. Clint, I…thank you."

Clint smiled back, and leaning forward, pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. "You’re welcome."

He sat back and looked at the meal he had prepared. "Well, we should eat, before Nat comes knocking down the door wanting her glasses and china back."

"Her china?" Bruce looked closely at the plates that held the food. "Nat has china?"

"Yeah. And by extension, we have china!"

Bruce laughed, "You get me all the best things."

"You know it, baby. And soon it’ll be for real," Clint picked up his glass and clinked it against Bruce’s. "I promise."

**Author's Note:**

> Written super quickly...what do you think?
> 
>  
> 
> ETA: I have the best readers! I reached 100 kudos on my other work, Burning Together, which was a personal goal of mine! So to thank you properly, I have opened up my ask box for this week: [tumblr ](http://unnaturalnoise.tumblr.com/ask). You can leave me prompts, ask me questions, harass me about unfinished works, whatever. Please drop by, I'd love to hear from you!


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